Scam Letter

The following is a letter received by my sister last week.  Anyone receiving such a letter is advised that this is a scam!!!


                   HERNANDEZ & SOCIALS SERVICES
     Calle de Goya 86, 28009 Madrid Espana.  Tel. +34 602 647 854 Fax: +34 911 820 141


                                                                                                              Date: 25.05/2012


ATTORNEY: Alejandro Mendez Casillas
EMAIL: mcasillas@hernandezsocios.eu
PRIVATE MAIL: alejandrom.esq@gmail.com


                                                                                                              (Your name & address)


Dear-----


My names are Alejandro Mendez Casillas and I work with Hernandez & Social Services,Spain.  Actually I got your contact information through the Canadian public records while searching for a last name similar to my late client's a business magnate by name of Tomasz ((your name)), who lived in Spain for over a decade prior to his death, he died along with his nuclear family during the Tsunami catastrophe ((could be any catastrophe)), which occurred December 2004.


Prior to my explaining further, I must first make an apology for this unsolicited mail to you.  I am conscious that this is certainly not a predictable way of approach to foster a relationship of trust but because of the circumstances and urgency surrounding this claim.  Before the catastrophe; He deposited One Trunk Box/Diplomatic Personal Treasure, containing the sum of $9.4M 9NINE MILLION, FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS) with a Safe Security Company here in Spain, because of security and personal reasons he did not disclose the exact content of deposited diplomatic box to the SAFE HOUSE.  As the attorney to late Tomasz ----, the security company has mandated me to present a member of his family (heir/inheritor) to make Claims or the vault will be confiscated and taken to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security as unclaimed.


After exhaustive efforts of search for a direct family member to my late client which came to no avail, I was given an ultimatum to look for some relative to come for the claim or have the Vault liquidated and made unserviceable in accordance with existing laws.  Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that I will like you to stand as the next of kin.  I know you may not be anyway related to my late client but having a common surname with him and the modality I have in place I can guarantee that if you follow my instruction (The rule of laws) and capitalizing  of some judicial loop holes the vault will be release to us.


Mind you that this transaction is 100% risk free; there is no atom of risk connected to this business as I have worked out all modalities to complete the operation effectively.  Once the consignment (vault) is released to you, we shall divide the content in the ratio of 50% for you, 50% for me as our benefit.  ($4.7 Million each)  Kindly indicate your responses to this mail either via email address above, you can also call or send me a fax for further clarification.


Please be kind to get back to me if you are not willing to collaborate with me so that I can further my search for another partner.


Kind regards,
Barrister: Alejandro Casillas
Private Email:  casalejandro.esq@gmail.com


Now, we are all greedy little devils and the letter did sound a little promising in the first half but then came the info that the sender was trying to con the recipient of the letter into committing a crime with him.  At this point, I felt there might actually be such an account but it certainly didn't belong to  anyone related to my sister (the recipient) so I told my sister and her husband not to send any money to this person because a request for some was sure to follow.  I went online and simply keyed in the name on the letterhead and came up with dozens of such letters sent across Canada for the last couple of years.  This was a major scam and, unfortunately, some of the people who received the letter sent both money and personal information to Spain.


A rule of thumb to go by is to never, ever send money or personal info without consulting your own lawyer first.  I guess that even before consulting your lawyer, just go online and do some of your own research.  Unethical people with always try to dupe the unwary and play on the greed that is in all of us.  We can only be forewarned and forearmed against them.